Yes, Friends of Lincoln Park, this is your fence, an historic landmark that has survived all those wicked winters and is now well on its way to complete restoration.
As you can see, the Congress Street section has already been renewed from top to bottom, with restored iron work and a major face lift for the granite piers.
A Work In Progress: Sculpture conservator Jonathan Taggart at work on the restoration of our historic fence.
This is a major undertaking which takes time and funding. Jonathan has agreed to see the project through to the end, which means the next section to tackle is Pearl Street, and that has already begun. What will save time and money are some of the new methods Jonathan has been able to institute while working on the Congress Street section at the beginning of this project. He has found ways of casting the base of the piers which can be used as we progress, as well as new and more efficient methods of cleaning the iron and resetting it with products that may be even more enduring than the original materials.
Although previously considered to be a priority project by the City of Portland, the Lincoln Park fence was not awarded CIP funds from the city for this fiscal year after all. This left the Friends of Lincoln Park scrambling to look elsewhere for support to complete the work that has already begun on the Pearl Street side of the fence.
Thanks to the generosity of friends and grants, Friends of Lincoln Park is very pleased to announce that we were able to finance the complete restoration of the iron fence, columns, and piers for the Pearl Street frontage – and this work has already begun.
Federal Street is next – please help us by donating what you can afford and become a part of our historic preservation campaign!
Thank you,
Frank E. Reilly
President
Friends of Lincoln Park